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The Massachusetts Lottery

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Greetings, fellow humans, from the Bay State, aka Massachusetts.

I open that way because I'm about to describe a commercial paid for by the state government here, to promote its lottery. That is: to get people to buy the tickets and in most cases lose money.

It is a commercial that seems normal enough inside these state boundaries but outside of them, to our fellow humans, would likely seem very strange indeed.

Other states advertise their lotteries by playing up what the potential winners of the lottery can gain -- the new house! the '60s muscle car! -- the chance to tell your boss where he can shove his next quarterly review! All of that.

In Massachusetts, though, we are treated to TV commercials in which workers using forklifts create a sort of sculpture with the use of $1 billion in cash. (No I didn't get a good luck at the denominations.) There is a voice-over saying words to this effect (I misquote from memory, but this is the gist of it) -- "This is the money you, good people of Massachusetts -- have spent on, that is have lost to, the Massachusetts lottery. We thank you for it, because we --your state -- are doing a lot of good things with it." [Some good things named.] "So please keep playing."

In the weeks during which this ad has been running, news reports indicate that participation in the Mass lottery has dropped.   I think I see the problem.

Do ad agencies working for the Las Vegas casinos say, "Hey, we can't built these really neat fountains and replicas of the Eiffel Tower without your help, dear suckers"?  No: they go with the possible new house, chance to tell off your boss, etc.

A state lottery has been described as "a tax on people who don't understand the laws of probability."

It is certainly taking advantage of people showing ignorance of those laws -- as is the business model of Steve Wynn etc.

Massachusetts' approach, though more honest, seems perverse. "Let us explain to you the laws of probability -- they are the laws that say we're going to get this money and use forklifts to move it around."

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  1. HenryJanuary 3, 2020 at 6:00 PM

    I don't know what percentage of lottery ticket purchasers understand the laws of probability, but some do, and they buy the tickets anyway. What they get for their $2 is the pleasure of fantasizing what they will do with the money, whether for themselves or to benefit others. Not a bad deal if it works for you; how many pleasurable experiences cost only $2? (I do not buy lottery tickets, but I have been told this by a lottery ticket purchaser or two.)

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